


Let's Play

by Signel_chan



Series: Let's Live Life [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Humanstuck, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-14
Updated: 2012-11-15
Packaged: 2017-11-16 07:57:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/537237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don't just play Pokémon. Let it change your life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Let's Play Pokémon

**Author's Note:**

> If you've seen this before, that's because I posted it to Tumblr months ago. If you haven't seen it (or any of the following parts), I advise you to buckle in, because there's one hell of a feels ride coming.

On the list of good mornings, this one had to be one of the better ones. After all, it wasn't every morning that Tavros woke up to the sound of a Pokémon game being played right next to him. Even then, it was normally his own game that he had left on overnight that he woke up to, not someone actively playing it. So when he heard battle music and actual attacks going on, his eyes shot open and he sat up, turning his head to see Vriska there, Game Boy in hand, mumbling things under her breath about how she was going to beat that Bellsprout so hard, it wouldn't know what hit it.

“Bet you didn't expect me to ever play this old copy of Silver, did you?” she asked, noticing that Tavros was awake. “I've been conquering all these stupid weak guys with my Cynd-whatever that I named Bitchface, with an eight instead of the B. It's pretty awesome.” She laughed, before putting the game back close to her face and muttering things again.

“Have you even accomplished anything in it yet?” Tavros moved back a bit and leaned up against her, so he could see the screen. “Gotten any badges, found any rivals, that kind of stuff?”

She snorted. “Found the rival? Who's the rival? The dude with the question marks for his name? I named him after you, because I wasn't feeling creative. My dude's name is Vriska. Pretty sweet, huh?” Her focus went back to the game for a second, before she screamed. “I just caught some sheep thing! I'm gonna name it Bitchlord!”

He was rather amused at her enthusiasm, and asked her if she'd be using an eight instead of the B for the name of every other Pokémon she caught, at which she laughed and said she wouldn't do anything but. This was a great moment, seeing her play so happily a game that he loved so much, but he couldn't spend all day in bed like she could. He didn't like the feeling of not moving—he simply had experienced that too many times already in his life. But Vriska was really sitting there playing Pokémon, and he wanted to enjoy that with her.

So, aside from the couple times where he pulled himself away just long enough to eat or do whatever was on his mind, like look out the window, He always found himself snuggled back up against Vriska, though, just watching her train her “8itchface” and “8itchlord,” both of which were way too strong compared to all of their opponents. They were there, him watching and her playing, until she met the inevitable first-attempt death by the Miltank owned by Whitney. “Oh, come on, you bitch! I should have beat you!” Vriska hissed, saving her game and turning it off. “If I had a fucking sweet spider to whip your ass with, I would have won!”

“Actually, Vriska, you could have had a spider. Well, a Spinarak, but it's a spider.” Tavros stopped talking for a second, noticing Vriska's rather angry facial expression. “You'd have to be playing Gold though, because it's Gold-exclusive.”

“Are you telling me I could have beaten that bitch if I was playing a different game?”

He laughed at her comment. “No, I'm saying you could have had a Spinarak. Which, by the way, would have been rather easily taken care of by Miltank. So you basically would have lost anyway, which is really okay! Everyone loses to Whitney at least once in their life.”

“Oh, and let me guess, you're going to tell me that everyone gets called by that Youngster Joey guy and told about how his Rattata is 'in the top percentage' or whatever? Because I like to think I'm pretty damn special, being called like that.” The smile she allowed to appear on her face was one of pride and happiness; Tavros felt terrible for knowing he was about to destroy it.

“Yeah, actually, he calls everyone who gives him their number. Sorry, Vriska,” he said, seeing the anger coming back to her face, “but that's just the way it is.”

She put the game on her nightstand and got up, pulling the bottom of her lacy white gown down a bit to cover herself. “I hate that game. Remind me never to play it again.”

“No one just walks away from Pokémon like that, Vriska! Believe me. You'll be back playing it again by the end of the night.” He got up too, and as she left the bedroom he followed, his pace slower than hers due to the metal braces on his legs. “Okay, make your whole 'I walked away from it' comment now. I dare you.”

“Nope, not going to even talk about it.” She locked herself in the bathroom then, and he could hear her screaming about Whitney and the Miltank. He took that opportunity to go back into their room and get the game, sit down on their couch, and start playing it himself, not to get her past where she was stuck but to judge her team. He wasn't surprised, even in the slightest, to see that they had horrible stats, thanks to the only two Pokémon she even had, 8itchface and 8itchlord, both being female. She hadn't even evolved either of them, and they were both ready for it. But was he going to tell her about that? Nope. She didn't seem to like the evolution animation, so she kept ending it, and he was going to let her keep ending it.

Nearly an hour later, she came out of the bathroom, her knuckles a bit bloody from beating on the walls. “Give me that,” she hissed, yanking the game from his hands. “I'm gonna beat that bitch and she's going to learn that you don't fuck with me.”

“Dude, chill out. It's just a game.” Tavros thought it was funny that he was the one saying that; after all, it was normally Vriska that was breaking him from his rage at his own Pokémon games. “I swear, Vriska, you're more into that thing than I ever was...”

“Don't talk to me, Tavros. I'm playing Pokémon now.” That was the last thing Vriska even said to him until almost an hour later, when she remarked that she was hungry, but she solved her own problem easily and went back to her concentrated silence. When her stomach started growling hours later, she didn't even bother with appeasing it, just focusing only on her game.

He sighed after its rumbling reached his ears for the second time without her doing anything. “Okay, I'm ordering a pizza,” he said, looking over at her. “What do you want on it?”

“The tears of children and the blood of my enemies,” Vriska replied without batting an eyelash in his direction. “I'm trying to find some bitch who decided it's okay to not be in the place she belongs. She's going to get a piece of my mind when I get to her.”

“Yeah, don't really care. I'm starving, and I need actual toppings for a pizza. Now either tell me what you want or you're getting what I want.” She whined a bit, but gave no real answer, so he sighed once more. “Okay. Plain old cheese and pepperoni it is.”

Leaving Vriska to play Pokémon in peace, he went to the phone and called the local pizza company, before finding himself back on the couch, listening to Vriska's whines and grumbles, all about how stupid the sidequest she was on really was. “I mean, what kind of bitch leaves her station for a sick Pokémon? That's just dumb,” she said, shaking the Game Boy a little. “And I want to ring her neck for making me go up this stupid tower. I hate it.”

“I think you're really forgetting that it's just a game. She's just pixels. There's nothing she's making you do. You're making yourself do it.” Tavros would have continued with his, sadly, true comments, but the doorbell rang then, and he had to get up to greet whoever was there. It had easily been half an hour by then, so the pizza guy was late and he could complain if he wanted to. He was rather surprised when he opened the door and there was a pizza...being delivered by a blonde guy with a baby strapped to his chest. “Dave? Did they deliver it to the wrong apartment again?”

The guy nodded. “Thanks for paying beforehand, or else I'd be pissed.” He shoved the pizza into Tavros's hands and laughed. “I've already got enough going on tonight. The last thing I needed was to have to pay for a pizza that isn't mine.”

“Is that Dave?” Vriska asked, putting the game down and jumping from her seat. “It is! Hey! Come on in!”

“No can do.” He pointed at the baby that was strapped to him. “I can't get distracted over here by someone with as short a skirt as you. I'm watching this kid, and that means I've got to be on my best behavior. If that means no teasing you about not even being dressed, then, sadly, so be it.”

Vriska's eyes trailed down to the end of her gown, which was up much higher than it should have been around anyone (besides herself and Tavros, that is), and she blushed, pulling it down. “Okay, fine, get back to your kid watching. Anyway, who does that fine specimen of child belong to? It's sure as fuck not yours.”

“Great observation, Vriska. Glad you know when someone's a Strider and when they're not.” He ran a finger through the baby's dark hair; the kid kicked and giggled. “It's just the neighbor's kid. Him and his lady wanted a nice night out together, so I decided that I could take care of their precious little thing for them, just this once.”

“You actually know your neighbors?” Tavros raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “That's really hard to believe. What, did they meet you after you played your music too loud one night or something?”

Dave ruffled the kid's hair some more as he answered. “I consider you guys my neighbors, and you're a floor up. Don't be so literal. I'm talking about John and Jade. They live a couple floors up from here, you know.”

“That's theirs? That thing looks normal. You must be lying to us.” Vriska sat back down, stuck her tongue out at Dave, and returned to playing her game. “They couldn't make something that cute even if they paid money.”

“Sorry she's being such a bitch right now,” Tavros said, setting the pizza down on a chair so he could use both hands to hold himself up in the doorway. “She's been playing Pokémon since she woke up, and she's kind of losing her mind...”

“Listen here. One of these nights, you need to ditch her and come chill with me. I can get you some hot chicks pretty easily, and they won't be nearly as bitchy as her.” Dave leaned down so Tavros could see his eyes over his sunglasses. “Of course, I guess you are kind of tied to her now, so maybe that's not a good idea. Maybe you should just ignore me.”

He knew that ignoring Dave was probably the best thing he could do, so with a quick thanks for bringing the pizza, Tavros closed the door in the blonde's face and took the food over to the couch, where Vriska was once again mumbling about the stupidity of the game. “Food's here, in case you didn't notice.”

“I'm not really feeling hungry for food anymore.” The game shut off, and Vriska looked at Tavros, giving him a slightly seductive grin. “All this playing games has made me realize how much I love my precious video game nerd, and...” She let out a low growl, stroking under his chin. “...don't you think the food could wait until after I show you my appreciation?”

The temptation was there, but as he heard his own stomach growling, he shook his head. “Sorry, sweetie, but we need to actually eat before we do that.”

“Oh,” she said, a tone of heartbreak in her voice. “Then let's eat, shall we?” She opened the pizza box, to reveal a pizza that was missing one slice. “Damn it, Dave! Just because the pizza guy's an idiot doesn't mean you get to steal our food!”

Pokémon, pizza, and getting hit on very strongly by his girlfriend. Tavros simply couldn't imagine a better day than that.


	2. Let's Play Dress Up

Unlike Tavros and his Pokémon games that he considered his closest friends, Vriska had tangible people that she could go to if she wanted to have fun. And while, sure, those games might have been a little interesting, but real people were a lot better than virtual pixels named “8itchface” and “8itchlord” could ever be. Even if they were a lot less loyal and didn’t attack when she wanted them to, like her Pokémon would have.

Okay, so maybe she was a bit addicted to playing those games. It wasn’t like she had anything else she should be doing when she was at home. The moment she walked in that front door of the apartment, she wanted to get out of her stuffy “visiting people” clothes, flop on the couch with the nearest handheld video game system she could find, and drown out her memories of friends with the sights and sounds of whatever Pokémon game she was playing. It didn’t matter what her and her friends had done that day, they required her to be dressed up decently, and she hated being dressed up more than anything. She would much rather have spent the entire day at work than in shoes that squished her feet and made it uncomfortable to stand.

Playing her games, though, didn’t happen on work nights. Those she needed to spend sleeping. But nights after a day with friends, and the off days where she didn’t have work or plans? Those were her moments of lounging around in her white gown and playing Pokémon. And this particular day she came home, kicked off her heels, and wandered to the bedroom, where she planned on changing into her gown. But it wasn’t on her pillow, where she had set it that morning. In fact, it wasn’t on the bed at all. It hadn’t been put in her dresser (which was not where it belonged, clean or dirty), it wasn’t in the closet, and it definitely wasn’t on top of the large pile of dirty clothes that belonged to her and Tavros.

It was just gone. And no amount of searching that room was going to make it come back, she knew, but there was no sense in not trying. The third time she searched her dresser, she noticed that her favorite blue bikini was also missing. Maybe he had decided he was going to buy her something new, something blue but styled like her gown? Sometimes Tavros did things like that without warning, and although it bothered her, he didn’t exactly have the confidence to ask her if it was okay. He just did it and became embarrassed whenever he revealed his gifts.

Speaking of Tavros, where was he? Vriska hadn’t seen him when she came in, and she hadn’t yet heard him say anything, and she had been home for twenty minutes by that point. He wasn’t home, and that probably meant neither was her stuff. Bummed that she didn’t have her gown, she threw on the closest shirt and comfortable pants she could find and went out to the couch, where the Game Boy and her copy of Pokémon Silver was waiting for her.

When she picked up her game, there was a note attached to the screen. Written in Tavros’ sloppy handwriting, it read: “I went down to Dave’s place for a night of fun and games. I hope you enjoyed your day with the girls.” He signed it with his name, and a little heart. She sighed, because it was so sweet that he would think to leave her a note somewhere that she would definitely see it, but within seconds the gears of her mind were rotating and she realized that all these things were connected. She knew where her stuff was.

Running out the door and down the stairs as quickly as she could, she made it down three floors in record time, much faster than she would have if she was to have waited for the elevator, which was something she would never do. That third floor down was the floor that Dave lived on, as obvious by all the empty apartments and the loud music coming from the only occupied place on the floor, music that she was not expecting at all. Normally when she was on this floor, she was exposed to hipster music she had never even heard of before, but this time, it was a song she recognized as one of the current pop hits. Her fist hit the door, attempting to knock louder than the music. Five minutes she stood there knocking, until the door opened a little bit, and a near-white blonde head peeked around it, dark shades obscuring the eyes.

“Let me in, Strider,” she hissed, and he shook his head. “Tavros is in there, and I demand that you let me in. Now!”

“Can’t let you do that, Vriska.” He began to close the door on her, until she stuck her hand inside his apartment. “I will slam you in the door if you don’t pull out.” The music turned off, and she could hear Tavros’ scared breathing on the other side. “Okay, fine. Your arm comes off now.”

Right as he said that, she shoved her foot inside. “Let me in. I’ve had enough of your bullshit to last me a lifetime, now give me back my boyfriend and my clothes and we’ll call it good.”

“I still can’t let you do that.” Instead of closing the door more, he opened it a bit wider. “Well, I can’t give you the clothes back, anyway. That would be a bit hard, due to what we’ve done with them. Sorry, Vriska, but you’re gonna have to leave.”

“I’m not leaving without my gown and bikini,” she said, pushing the door open a little more. “Those things are mine and I’d like to know they’re home safe with me.”

Finally, after a few more minutes of this banter, he opened the door all the way, him and Tavros both behind it. “Come on in, I guess, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She stepped inside, hands on her hips, a very angry expression on her face.

“What’s the big deal here?” Her voice raised, as did one eyebrow. They were still behind her, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to turn around. Thankfully, or maybe not, they came in front of her instead, and she gasped at exactly what she saw. Two grown men, wearing clothes that belonged to her. Her long-time boyfriend, posing in her white gown, which hung limp against his bony frame. Her friend, wearing her bikini, with the top stuffed very obviously with pieces of paper. They were posing, quite obviously mocking her. And she was angrier than she had been before. “Oh, so  _this_  is what you’ve been hiding? Cute.”

“Vriska, we were, uh, just trying to see what it’s like being you. I mean, you look fantastic whenever you wear this stuff, so we figured we’d give it a try…” Tavros had dropped his pose and was walking over to her, his metal leg braces hitting the ground with every bare-footed step. “We didn’t mean any harm by it, okay?”

She glared at him, pushing his hand away when he tried to touch her arm with it. “You could have had the decency to ask, okay? I can’t believe either of you, but especially you, Tavros! You know how much I love that gown, and you’re now wearing it and you probably stretched it out getting it over your fucking huge shoulders.” With only an eyeroll at Dave, she turned around and stormed out of the apartment, running back up the stairs before the tears had the chance to fall. They were disgusting, doing that to her and her stuff. It was wrong of them, and she was so hurt by it. Her door was still slightly open, and she went inside, collapsing on the couch and immersing herself in her video games. After all, her Pokémon were more loyal than those guys.

Hours passed, and the late evening turned to the dark of night. It had to have been nearly midnight when she heard the doorknob turning, and someone stepped inside. She didn’t care; her Pokémon needed her, not whoever was there. “Just came to get my clothes, okay?” That was Dave’s voice. “I left them here so you could be sure to get your precious swimsuit back. Tavros only told me a million times how much it means to you.”

“Get your clothes and then get lost,” she muttered in response, focusing more on her game than the fact that this meant that Dave walked through the building while wearing a bikini. “I don’t want to deal with your shit anymore.”

He disappeared into the bathroom, but when he came out, he was dressed in his normal attire and had her bikini in hand. “Here you go,” he said, tossing it at her, “and have fun wearing that next summer. Bet you’ll look better in it than I did.”

“Yeah, whatever. You can leave now.” Her game in one hand and her things in another, she motioned towards the door, which was once again opening, this time with a tall guy in a white gown coming in. “And you, you can just leave.”

“I was planning to spend the night at Dave’s, so that makes sense. Just came so you could have this back, since I know you won’t sleep in anything else.” With a sad sigh, Tavros walked past the couch where Vriska sat, not looking at her at all. However, Vriska knew him well enough to know that he was obviously upset at the whole thing, whether he meant to hurt her or not. When she heard the loud, very unmanly sobs coming from the bedroom, she knew she had done wrong, and she had to do something to fix it.

Ignoring the man who was waiting at her door, she got up from the couch and joined Tavros in the bedroom. He sat on the bed, still in her gown, his face buried in her hands. “Oh, sweetie, I didn’t mean to make you cry…” It was the nicest voice she could muster, but it still sounded mean. “I’m just mad that you’re wearing that.”

“Great to know that a stupid piece of clothing means more to you than I do,” he choked out, before looking at her straight in her blue eyes. “Why don’t you go back out there and play your game, and I can just sit in here and cry?”

She crossed her arms as she stood there looking at his sobbing figure. “I don’t want to play. Bitchlord isn’t my boyfriend, you are.”

“Of course that’s what you’re gonna say.” He covered his eyes again. “Now tell me that you’re going to leave me, because I’m waiting for it.” When she didn’t, he moved his hands and just stared. “Okay, where’s the break-up? Where’s the ‘we need to go separate ways’ talk you’re about to give? Are you not going to do it?”

“No, I’m not, because that would be the jerk thing to do here. I might have been a bitch back there, but I’m not going to be a bitch now.” She got up on the bed next to him. “Sorry about what I said about your shoulders. I like them, just so you know. They’re one of my favorite parts about you.”

His eyes widened a bit, and he wiped tears from them. “They are? What’s your favorite part, then?” To say it, she got right up to his ear and whispered it, making his eyes widen a bit more as she backed away. “Oh, I get it. Well, what do you want to do about that?”

“What do you think?” she sarcastically asked, taking off her shirt and beginning to slide herself out of her pants. “I want you to get what you’ve got underneath that gown off and for you to join me underneath the blankets.”

Standing in the front doorway waiting for Tavros, Dave was expecting maybe a loud fight or two, maybe some bangs, coming from the bedroom. He didn’t expect that back room’s door to shut, and the occasional loud moan or screamed name coming from it. After standing there awkwardly listening to that for a few moments, he walked out, locking and closing the door behind him. He had already been wearing Vriska’s bikini, and he knew how much paper he had to use to stuff that—he didn’t need the mental images coming to him of the real things that belonged in that top, real things that his friend was probably getting an eyeful of.


	3. Let's Play Hide-n-Seek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, this chapter is depressing and kind of sorta heartbreaking. :/

The lightning outside the window had Tavros huddling underneath the sheets, his leg braces clattering against each other. He hated storms like this, and whenever the thunder would sound, he'd let out a girlish yelp. Being alone at a moment like this was his worst nightmare, when it was dark and stormy and he just needed a hug from someone he loved. But, unlike normal, she wasn't there with him.

Twenty minutes were spent under those blankets, before the thunder from the storm seemed to calm down, and he poked his head out into the empty room. There was still rain hitting the window's glass, but the worst of the storm seemed to be long gone. He sighed, threw all the blankets to the end of the bed, and got up, legs shaking beneath him. His heart was racing, and he really needed that hug. However, getting that hug would require him being able to carry himself out of the room, which he did, but he forgot to redress himself in the process. As he was planning to go to bed when the storm hit, he was in nothing but his leg braces and a small pair of shorts.

Sadly, even in his half-dressed state, he didn't get so much as a smile when he came into the living room and found Vriska there. Like she normally was at this time of night, she was laying on the couch, her Game Boy in hand, playing Pokémon to her heart's content. “Come on, Bitchlord,” she muttered, squinting at the screen, “kick some Elite ass, will you?”  
“Vriska?” he asked, putting his hand in front of her game. “Did you even hear the storm?”

After a few moments of grumbling that she couldn't see the screen, she looked at him, slight concern in her eyes. “There was a storm? Oh, sorry Tav. I was playing and watching movies and...”

“It's okay. I know you didn't mean to leave me alone through the whole thing.” He smiled and she giggled at him, playfully moving his hand so she could return to her gaming. His smile widened when she re-immersed herself in the game, because she hadn't so much as raised her voice at him like she normally would. He was, quite honestly, thankful that she wasn't raging at him, in the midst of a mood swing, which would have been more typical.

He carefully sat down on the end of the couch, then lifted her legs and scooted closer to her, setting them on top of his when he was comfortable. She didn't pay it any mind, due to her game, and that truly pleased him, because it meant he would get to admire his girlfriend without her noticing a thing. Back before she was into gaming like she was, he would do this to her while she'd be laying on the sofa watching movies, and she would be in her skimpy little nightgown which was easy for him to look up. But now she was laying in normal clothes, and although she looked as pleasing as she possibly could for being in sweats and an old shirt, his eyes were still hungry for a bit more. He wasn't going to get that hug, and now he was being denied getting a peek or two at her. Not like he was too terribly upset about that, though.

They both knew why she had begun to wear modest things, and it had all started at the very moment when she put her nightgown on and it didn't fit her like it used to. “We've got to start taking things seriously now, I guess,” she had said while staring at herself in her gown, which was very tight on her. “I didn't want this to happen. I wanted to be married and stable and...not living in this place before we started a family. But it's too late for that now, isn't it?” And he had nodded and agreed with her on all of it. He knew this was his fault, that if he hadn't pulled his crossdressing stunt months, almost half a year before, they never would have done what they did and gotten into this situation. Like she said, though, it was too late for it to not happen, and they just needed to deal with it. Fast forward to where they were now, two months after that, he knew they both still didn't want this to be happening, but they were making the best of the situation, even if it meant Vriska did nothing but lay on the couch playing Pokémon. 

The smile on Tavros' face got bigger and bigger as he admired his lovely girlfriend, while she mumbled things to herself about her game. She wasn't even paying attention to him, focusing all the way on her game, and he was okay with that. If she so much as caught him glimpsing at her enlarged stomach, she would probably have asked him to stop, or worse, yelled at him to look away, because she was “too ugly for his eyes.” He didn't think that, though, because what she was could only be described as the result of their love, and he did like admiring what he had helped create, even if he wasn't seeing much.

“Do you think it will like Pokémon too?” Vriska asked, leaning up a bit and moving her game to the side, allowing her to lock eyes with him. “If it doesn't, then we better make it. I'd like for it to carry on the good names of Bitchface and Bitchlord.”

Before he could reply to that with so much as a laugh, a low wail came from outside, sending shivers down Tavros' back. As it got louder, a sense of panic overcame him, pushing Vriska's legs away so he could get to his feet. The sound, after reaching a very loud level, began to fade for a few moments, only to begin picking up in volume again. “We need to get out of here, and now!” he shouted, turning and looking at her. “Do you know what that siren means?”

“That some dumbass got hit by a car?” Vriska was sitting up, still with her game in hand. “We hear it like every single night. Calm down. You're acting like the building's on fire.” She paused then, listening to the siren coupled with the sounds of people running down the stairs outside of their apartment. “Wait, where's everyone going? Did the car hit our building?”

“Vriska, we need to get downstairs. Now. That's not the normal siren we hear around here. That's not the normal one at all. That's a freaking tornado siren, and I knew that storm was bad news.” He grabbed her hand and started pulling her up and towards the door. “Come on. We need to get downstairs right now.”

“Why, though? We live in the city. Tornadoes don't come into cities...” She resisted his pulling for a few moments, before giving in and coming to her feet. “And besides, what good will going downstairs do us?”

He gave her a look that could only be described as dirty, but by the time she looked to see it, it was gone. “They do too come into cities, and we don't exactly live on the bottom floor here, so if it happens to come our way, we'd be fucked. Downstairs, now.”

“Dave lives downstairs. Are we gonna chill at his place until this is all over?”

“There are two things wrong with that idea. One, he doesn't live on the bottom floor, so we'd still be in serious danger, and two, he isn't even in town right now, so we can't get in.” Tavros, sighing at Vriska's stubbornness to accept the serious nature of the situation, tugged at her arm again. “Now let's get down there before the only places left are too small for both of us.”

The thought of having to both squeeze into somewhere small made Vriska shudder, and she finally cooperated enough for them to get to the door, before she spoke again. “Are you seriously going to go out there without a shirt or proper pants? That's kind of strange of you...” But then she remembered that he wasn't just casually leaving the apartment; he was fleeing for his life, and when one's life is on the line, all rules of decency go out the window.

They made it out and down two floors before something else happened—the lights in the building shut off, causing Tavros to scream like a little girl and cling to Vriska for dear life. “I hate storms so much, you don't even know,” he muttered, trying to calm himself down. “I don't want to live here anymore, okay? Let's move somewhere where we're living in the ground floor apartment, or, better yet, living in a house with a basement, or, best of all, somewhere where this can't happen!”

“Yeah, no kidding! But, you know, we kind of don't have the money to do that right now, thanks to...well, you know what!” Even though it was pitch black and they couldn't see each other, he knew she was pointing at her stomach, because he knew that the child inside of it was trapping them in this place. “So we're just going to have to deal with this stuff!”

The power flickered back on for a moment, allowing Tavros to confirm what he was sure of, and also allowing him to see that the staircase in front of them was packed with people. “I know, I know, but it would be nice to live somewhere where we weren't stuck out in the open as tornado fodder while everyone else saves themselves.”

“There is no fucking tornado!” Vriska went to slap Tavros, but the hand she chose was the one that held her Game Boy, and when it connected with his bare shoulder, it made a loud cracking noise.

“What the fuck, Vriska! I'm trying to save your life here, and yet you're beating me with a video game that you better hope you didn't just break!” She gasped and rushed to turn it on, finding that the game was just fine, while he grumbled about the pain in his shoulder that he didn't exactly want. “I'm expecting an apology for that outburst there...”

She snorted at the comment. “You aren't getting any apology from me. If you hadn't decided you were going to pull your stupid crossdressing stunt, and if you hadn't been such a whiner about it afterward, we wouldn't be here right now, and therefore this wouldn't be happening. It's all your fault, so suck it up.”

“All my fault? I wasn't the one who decided that comforting someone who was upset required getting them out of their clothes!” He let go of her and pushed her away a little, nearly knocking her into someone else. “If you're going to be like this, I'm done with you.”

“Done with me? You can't be done with me! If you are, you're going to look like a total douche for leaving me!”

“It's better than dealing with your stupid lies and guilt trips.” He was going to say more, but a loud sound from outside startled him and sent him back into her arms. “Okay, maybe I'm not done with you. After all, you're always there to hold me when I'm scared, and you are the love of my life and all that cheesy stuff.”

She laughed, before another noise had him clinging even more. “I better be the love of your life, okay? I mean, if I wasn't anymore, I guess I'd understand why. I don't spend nearly as much time with you as I should.” Even in the dark, she was easily able to begin tickling the back of his neck, at which his reaction was to push her away.

If it hadn't been so dark, he would have noticed the nearly empty stairs he pushed her down.

* * *

Once again, it was storming, with Tavros curled up under the blankets in the bed, completely alone and wishing for someone to comfort him. Unlike the last time, there was no one to come keep him company, which, as he knew, was his own fault. Had he thought a bit before he reacted, Vriska never would have fallen down the stairs, and therefore wouldn't have become so isolated from him. They were still together, sure, but they weren't even close to the same.

It took some time, but the storm passed, and he climbed out of bed, going to check on Vriska to make sure she was okay. Storms now scared her more than they did him, due to the events of that night, and when one came on she hid herself under her own blankets, as far from him as she could possibly get. This time, though, she was laying on the couch in a blanketed heap, the sounds of her panicked breathing and video game playing giving her away. “Vriska, you can come out now,” he said, beginning to pull blankets away. “The storm's gone.”

“It's not gone until I can see the sun.” Using a very shaky hand, she adjusted her remaining blankets. “Now leave me alone. I don't need you trying to kill me again.”

Instead of listening to her, he carefully sat down on the floor next to her. “I'm not going to try to kill you. There's no siren, and we aren't trying to get downstairs in complete darkness. There's nothing I can do that will hurt you.”

Still shaking, she pushed the blankets off of her face, revealing half of her face that was just barely bruised from the fall she took. “Nothing, yeah. You know what today should have been, right?” Not giving him enough time to respond, she continued pushing the blankets off of herself, her hand shaking more and more. “Today should have been the day that our lives changed forever. But no, you had to push me down the stairs and destroy that, didn't you?”

“I-I'm sorry about that, Vriska. I didn't realize we were that close to them, and I was scared, and...”

“And what? You want to take it back? Want to make it so I didn't fall? Well it's way too late for that. Get the blankets off my legs, will you?” She had pushed as far as she could with her hand, and she was very slowly starting to sit up, unable to continue freeing herself. He nodded and did as she demanded, getting them off and revealing her braced legs. “So instead of us becoming parents today, like we were supposed to, it's just another day of me living this shitty existence that you set me up for. Isn't that great?”

As quickly as she could, which was rather slow, she got herself up and began walking back the to the bedroom, completely in silence. Tavros, still sitting on the floor, sighed, knowing that Vriska was very much hurting, and after a couple moments of deep reflection, he decided that he would join her in bed. No sooner had he gotten to his feet that he heard a noise he would rather not have ever heard again in his life.

This time, though, the wailing of the siren was accompanied with the terrified screams of an extremely broken woman.


	4. Let's Play Mind Games

Game nights and the joys of being able to spend hours upon hours of video game discussing were always something that Tavros and Vriska looked forward to, no matter how broken they were. It probably was a bad idea for this particular one to happen where it did, in an apartment covered in toys and clothing tailored for a young child. The second the door was opened to let them in, Vriska, who had already been in tears for whatever reason, began to cry rather heavily, triggered by the sight of kiddy things into remembering what had been taken from her.

“Hey, guys,” John said with an awkward laugh, stepping out from behind the door and kicking a small xylophone out of view. “Sorry it's so disorganized in here. We've been having some problems getting a certain someone to put their things away.” As he bent down to pick up a small stuffed dog, they came in, with Vriska being her crying mess and Tavros just trying to get her inside before she disturbed the neighbors. John looked up and saw Vriska's tears, and his face fell into a frown. “Is this mess causing that? I'm sorry if it is.”

“It's not your fault, don't worry,” Tavros replied, brushing some hair from Vriska's face. “She's been crying off and on all day, and the slightest things happen to start it. Maybe she'll calm down a bit when she starts playing Pokémon. Her gaming seems to make her happy.”

When she heard that suggestion, a very small smile appeared on Vriska's face. “I've been meaning to show you my team on HeartGold, John,” she said, quickly drying her tears even though there was still the sound of crying in her voice. “On top of Bitchface Two and Bitchlord the Second, little Spiderguy is pretty great.”

“Yeah, I'd like to see this team of yours. Just give me a minute to clean up, and then we can sit down and look at them.” John stood back up and grinned at her, causing her to happily giggle, which pleased Tavros. “Why don't you both sit, actually? I don't like my guests standing around when they don't have to.” While Vriska eagerly took his request to heart, as she was standing without the braces she was supposed to use after damaging both her knees in her incident with the stairs, Tavros chose to go find Jade instead.

She was right where he figured she was, sitting in the hall against a closed bedroom door, listening for any sounds of the kid who was inside of it. “Oh, hi, Tavros,” she whispered, motioning for him to sit across from her, which he did. “How did you know I was back here?”

“I happen to remember you saying that this is bedtime, and I know you well enough to know you would be listening until she's asleep in there. It's a shame that we only come over here at night, because I'd really like to get to see her. Last time I did, she was pretty little.” Tavros, in his attempt to stay as quiet as possible, stifled his end-of-speaking laugh, and chose to instead smile at Jade.

“Yeah, the last time you saw her was the last time me and John got to go out on a date...” Leaning back against the door a bit, Jade sighed. “Maybe you and Vriska could babysit her one of these days, and let us have a day to ourselves.”

“I like the plan, but Vriska, well, she might not be able to handle it. She can't even breed her Pokémon anymore, because just the thought of a baby anything can put her into a bad mood. I wish there was a way to fix it, but I don't think there is.” Saying that Tavros felt guilty for causing those problems for Vriska was an understatement; he didn't go a single day without feeling terrible and wondering how their lives would be if he hadn't accidentally pushed her down the stairs. “So I think we're going to have to pass on the job.”

Standing up after declaring the child asleep, Jade smiled and said, “It's no problem, really.” As she helped Tavros get back to his feet, another idea came to her. “How about we go in there and take a look at her, huh? You were just talking about not having seen her, so how about it?”

“That sounds great, actually.” With an even bigger smile, Jade opened the bedroom door and, since they both expected to see a sleeping kid inside, they were taken aback when there was a toddler, sitting in her bed, playing with her toys in silence.

“Casey, darling, aren't you supposed to be sleeping?” Jade asked, going to the side of the bed and looking down at the dark-haired girl. “Bedtime isn't playtime.” In response, she got a bunch of babbling and a toy rabbit handed to her. “No, sweetie, this isn't time for me to be playing animals with you. This is time for me to be with my friends, and you to be sleeping.”

The small child noticed Tavros then, pushing a stuffed salamander in his direction. “I think you should listen to your mom and sleep, you cutie,” he said, giving her a little wave. “I'll come over here sometime and we can play then. Is that good?”

With a shake of her head, Casey made it clear that she was in no mood to be sleeping, and with a deep sigh, Jade ended the fight about it, pulling the blankets off of the girl's legs and letting her get out of bed and run gleefully out of the room. “Wait, fuck! She can't go out there! You seriously just said Vriska seeing her might be a problem!”

And a problem it was. No sooner than Casey and her little footsteps got into their living room did Vriska begin crying once more, jerking her game from John's hands and immersing herself in as a distraction. “What is Casey doing out of bed? She's supposed to be sleeping right now!” John was not pleased, and he made that clear when Jade came rushing into the room. “Get her back in bed. She has a bedtime for a reason, and she needs to follow it.”

“I'm really sorry, John, but she wasn't sleeping and she wanted to play. The only reason I am going to take her and put her back in her room right now is because Vriska is obviously distressed by her being in here.” Having cornered the little girl, Jade picked her up and, ignoring her screaming, carried her back to the bedroom, leaving a tearful Vriska, an angered John, and Tavros, who was once again wishing that he hadn't messed those things up back when he did, behind.

“Oh, look! Wild Mareep!” Vriska squealed out, and it seemed that things might have gone back to normal, for the moment, in her little world. “Too bad it's so weak compared to my team. It's a good Pokémon, really.”

“You only say that because you always use some form of one. There are much, much better Pokémon out there. Take Chinchou for example. Great Pokémon. Great typing. Totally better than Mareep.” John, looking onto Vriska's screen, laughed a bit. “Too bad that you'll never get your head out of that box and us—did you just catch that Mareep?”

She nodded, and John smacked his forehead. “What, I wanted it. Weak, yes. Good Pokémon, yes. I need it.”

“Vriska, did you ignore my speech on why Chinchou is better?”

“I might have, yeah. Now leave me alone. Me and my team have some nicknaming to do, before I fight you about smack talking my precious Mareep.” Pulling her game so that only she could see it, she fell silent aside from button pressing, making John just a bit mad at her behavior. Tavros, on the other hand, was completely used to strange things like that, and he just pulled out a chair from the dining room table and sat to watch. When Jade came back from putting Casey in bed, she too sat in a chair, and patiently waited for someone to say something.

The next words happened to come from John, after Vriska shakily stood up, walked across the room, and handed her game to Tavros. “What, are you done playing? Did your team of weak-ass Mareeps lose or something?”

“No, they didn't lose. I just gave Tav the game so he can admire my team, while I handle you.” She hit his ribs a few times with her elbow after she sat back in her spot. “Now take back all the shit you said about Mareep.”

“Never. Chinchou is better. Lanturn is better. Mareep and its evolutionary family are decent at best. They just don't cut it for me. Sorry, Vriska, but that's the way it is.” He put a hand on Vriska's head and rustled her blonde hair a bit. “Now why don't you admit I'm right, and we can call it good?”

With a hair flip that sent her long locks into his face, she defiantly said, “No way, Egbert. Mareep is the best Pokémon there is, and you saying otherwise is a disgrace to you and everything you like.” A second later, she retracted the opening statement. “I mean, Mareep is the best electric Pokémon.”

But the damage there had already been done, as John cringed back from her and shook his head. “I can't believe you're claiming a second generation Pokémon to be the best. The best has to come from the first generation, and that would make Pidgeot, my personal favorite, much, much better than your stupid Mareep.”

“Isn't a Pidgeot just a fatter version of the stupid Pokémon that the first big guy you fight has? That means its stupid and weak to Mareep. How can something be better than something it's weak to? Think your points through better, okay?”

“Okay, okay. Cacnea. That's also better than Mareep. Third generation, yes, but amazing Pokémon all the same.” John gave Vriska a small and sassy nod. “Care to argue that one with me? Oh wait. You can't, can you?”

She shrugged and pushed him a little. “I have no fucking idea what a Cacnea is, so...care to make a point I can argue with, maybe?”

“Fine, you lame woman you. How about Wooper? It's cute, it's strong, and your Mareep can't even touch it with electric attacks. So, what about that?”

“Wooper is a stupid Pokémon. What kind of cheap person needs to have a type made useless just for their precious weak thing to be good? A person like you, John. A person like you.”

“Take that back. My Wooper is named Jade, and she is a precious little badass.”

From her seat on the other side of the room, the real Jade squealed and blushed, before she looked at Tavros, who was absentmindedly looking at the game Vriska had handed him. “Hey, are you paying any attention to what they're talking about?” she asked him, to which he shook his head. “Is something wrong?”

“Not wrong, but off. Something is not right here. Ever since her accident, it has been in her hands at almost all times, and now she hands it off to me? It doesn't make sense.” All of this was said under his breath, as he turned the game on. Once the screen was illuminated, he raised his voice back to normal. “I'm taking a look at your stuff, Vriska. I want to make sure your team is as good as it could be.”

“It's six Mareeps,” John said back. “I don't know how good six of those pitiful creatures can be.”

Vriska covered his mouth and giggled at Tavros. “It's not even supposed to be good, okay? You've just got to look at them and tell me what you think!”

“As you wish, Vriska...” The game was completely on, and he was accessing her team, just for his eyes to widen and a large smile to appear on his face. Completely speechless, he turned to Jade, showing her the team. Her reaction was to clap happily and squeal.

“What? What's going on? Vriska, did you manage to catch a shiny or something? What are they so excited about?” John pulled the hand off of his mouth and looked angrily at Vriska, but she was too busy grinning along with Tavros to notice. “Come on, someone explain before I go see it for myself!”

Right when Jade, who was able to collect herself fastest, went to tell John what was going on, the front door opened and in came Dave, wearing a shirt that was many sizes too small for him and an old Pokémon blanket wrapped around his legs like a skirt. “Am I too late for the game party?” he asked, before looking at the faces of the people in the room, and deciding that maybe he was.

* * *

“Were you being serious about the team, Vriska? Like, was what you named all of them the truth, or is this some sick joke that you're playing on yourself? It sounds like something you would do, to maybe erase the fact that what happened did actually happen...” They were back in their apartment, laying in bed, Vriska rapidly pressing buttons as she renamed all of her Mareeps once more. “You aren't lying, right?”

“I took the time to catch six Mareeps, three male, three female. I spent the time naming them in a way to get a message across to you. Do you really think I would be doing this for my own mental stability? No. In fact, I'd ask if I am even less stable than before.” Her voice held a hint of whining in it, and Tavros knew that she was on the verge of tears. “Do you not believe what I told you?”

He scooted a bit closer to her, resting his head on her shoulder and watching her play. “No, I believe you. I was just making sure that it was safe to believe you. The last thing I want is for me to get my hopes up, again, just for everything to come crashing down, again.”

“The last time was your fault. And I know, I know, absolutely nothing has changed in our living or romantic situation since the last time. I'm still not in the place I though I would be when we started a family, but...we can handle it.” There was the crying, as she sat her game down on the table beside her. “As long as I don't fall down any stairs this time, I'm sure it'll be fine.”

“Yeah, it will be fine. And you know what? If you want one of those things to change, well, maybe it will. Who knows?”

“You know, Tavros. That's why you just brought that up.”

He gave a very small snort, before cuddling up against her, making sure to be careful not to push her off the bed or anything. “Good point, Vriska. Oh, and I love you.”

“I love you too, Tavros. I really do. Ignore the fact that I'm crying and just appreciate that I am able to say I love you even after you hurt me and killed our first baby.”

“Don't worry, I appreciate it every second. And this time will be different. I swear it on the lives of your Pokémon, and I don't plan on killing them.”


	5. Let's Play in the Snow

The first snow of the season was always the worst. Everyone on the roads never remembered how to drive in the weather, even if they had driven in it many times before in previous years. No one was ever happy to see the snow—they grumbled and whined about it falling from the sky. And even though the “storm” was apparently bad enough to make a couple schools close for the day, it really wasn't much of an inconvenience to Tavros on his way to work that morning.

In fact, the bigger problem to him was the fact that everyone coming inside for their morning coffee and sausage biscuits was angry beyond belief. He was forced to put up with more verbal abuse than normal, and that was saying something, as he had a regular customer who would yell at him every time he was cashiering. Everything possible that could be wrong for these people seemed to be going wrong, and they were all taking it out on him. Each and every one of them. As the hours dragged on, and the snow kept falling at its slow and steady pace, he began wishing that something, anything, would happen to break him from this prison, before he lost composure and started stuttering at everyone who came to order.

That something he was waiting for happened to be a phone call, one that came just as he returned to working after his lunch break. If it had been anyone else who was in the middle of a shift, they would have been forced to wait until they were on break to handle it, but since he had been working this same job for a long time, and he could also need to rush home at any moment, the management let him keep his phone on his person. He answered the phone within seconds, after he heard the special ringtone he had set for Vriska—after all, she was his reason for keeping his phone on him.

Half an hour before, Vriska had been sitting on one of the benches at the mall, absentmindedly playing HeartGold and saying things to herself, while she waited for the friends who had left her there to come back. She hadn't wanted to go to the mall at all, but it was something to pass the time, and she was, according to both John and Jade, spending way too much of her time alone in her bedroom. To her it wasn't a problem, but to them it was, and they dragged her along on this adventure, leaving her sitting on this bench when she started complaining of her legs starting to hurt. They swore they'd be right back, the two of them and little Casey, and they'd take her home once they brought their car around to this side of the building.

She wouldn't have ever noticed that it was taking them an awful long time if it hadn't been for a security guard coming up to her asking if she was okay. “Yeah, I'm perfectly okay,” she said in response, waving him away. “Don't worry. Nothing is going to happen to me. And if something is going to happen, then I will definitely cause a scene.” That comment earned her a stern glare and a warning that, if it wasn't snowing out, she would have been escorted to the curb. And if it hadn't been snowing, she probably would have gone. The people in the mall were constantly questioning her about why she was there, if she was lost, and, most annoyingly, if there was any possibility at all of her going into labor right there so they could watch.

There was nothing more that she wanted to do than go home, lay in bed, and play Pokémon, but she had to deal with the questions and wait for her ride to come back. When that security guard got in her business, she took the opportunity to check the time, and it was way later than she realized, but that wasn't the first thing she noticed when she saw her phone. She had an unread message from John from only moments before, and, with the guard still glaring at her, she checked it. It was long, but with a good reason: while they were bringing the car around for her, some teen who was illegally behind the wheel of another car slammed into the side of their vehicle, and that she would need to get a ride home, unless she wanted to come sit with them at the hospital while they all got checked out, and then she'd need a ride over there.

It didn't matter where she wanted to go, because she knew who she had to call. And so she pressed his speed dial button and waited for Tavros to answer his phone, which she knew wouldn't take long at all because it would get him out of working. “Hey, what's going on?” he asked when he picked up, and she could hear some rude customer yelling at him for being on the phone. “Is it time?”

“Oh, no, it's not!” She gave a forced laugh, knowing that there was a slightly serious situation going on that he wasn't aware of. “I just need you to come get me from the mall. There's been a bit of an accident.”

“Accident? You didn't fall down an escalator, did you?” Without even waiting for her to speak and tell him he was wrong, he started off on her. “Vriska, this is why I didn't want you going anywhere. You'd be easy to break more, and...I bet you didn't even think about that when you decided to go!”

It was there that she cut him off. “I was in no way involved in this accident, okay? Some idiot ran into John's car and I guess it was bad enough that they got sent to the hospital, and I kind of want to go see them but if you're going to be a douche and do this, never mind. I'll walk home.” Against her better judgment, she stood up, put her game in her purse, and began walking toward the nearest door. “You'll find me dead in a snowbank somewhere.”

“Vriska, don't you dare walk anywhere. Stay wherever you are, and I'll come get you.” His receiver was muffled for a moment as he explained to someone, most likely his manager, what the deal was, before returning to the conversation. “I'll be there in a few minutes. Please don't do anything you'd regret. Please.”

Another forced laugh found its way through her lips, as she made her way back to the bench. “I'll stay right here then, I guess. I wouldn't knowingly do something to endanger my sweet little girl, and you know it.” She heard him groan a little, as a result of giving a gender to their child, which they had refused to actually learn. “Just hurry up and get over here.”

“I'll go as fast as I can in the snow. It's still coming down, even if it's not much, so I'll be slower than normal, but...” His voice trailed off for a moment. “Please stay safe where you are. Remember that I love you and him both.” He hung up, but only after Vriska groaned at his gender-giving, and her assurance that she loved him too.

She had no idea how long it took him to get there, but she knew that she had spent most of the time thinking about their little battle about if their baby was a boy or a girl. In all honesty, the only reason they chose not to be told was so they could argue about it, and argue they did. Almost every conversation they had brought it up, and while Tavros was convinced that he was correct and that they'd be having a boy (which he was going to name either Dante or Rufio or maybe both), she was almost completely certain that she was carrying a girl. But unlike him, where he already had names picked out, she was clueless as to what name to use.

That was what she was thinking about when she got called asking where she was in the mall, and that thought stuck with her up until she was safely in the car, cold from being in the snow for a few moments, but otherwise perfectly okay. “So, they got wrecked, huh?” Tavros asked her as he started to drive away. “Pretty lucky that you weren't in the car with them when it happened. I would have hated to lose a second child, especially when we've gotten further with this one than the last one...”

“Well, yeah, if I had been in the car, I would have cursed my terrible luck and hoped that maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't be becoming parents to another dead kid. But I guess I have pretty good luck. I mean, the reason I wasn't in the car is because my legs were hurting too bad, which is a result of bad luck, but...” She blinked as she tried to figure out her own train of thought, before biting her lip. “I'm kind of sad now.”

“Don't be sad, Vriska. They're fine, you're fine, I'm fine. Everything is okay. There is absolutely nothing here for you to be sad about.” His eyes on the road, Tavros didn't get to see Vriska's head turn down, but he did hear a small groan from her. “Okay, what's wrong, aside from the fact that our friends are in the hospital?”

She perked her head back up and gave a big smile. “Nothing's wrong, really. Just playing up the fact that I said I'm sad, that's all.” The demeanor she possessed gave him no reason to question her more, which she thought was perfect—she was biting down on her tongue to keep herself quiet, and if she needed to speak, who knew what would have come out of her mouth.

* * *

The first thing they saw when they got to the room they were told to go to was a bruised face, one belonging to a certain mister John Egbert. As he was quick to explain, when their car was hit, he happened to get a fist full speed at his head, causing the bruises, but that was all the damage done to him. In fact, the worst damage anyone got was two broken fingers, and that was only because it was Jade's hand that hit his face. “We're just going to be here for a little bit longer, and then we'll be able to go, but then we've got to go deal with that jerk who wrecked us,” he said, while sitting on the end of the bed they were making Jade be in, “and I'd really like to go home, but we can't quite yet.”

“Why do you want to go home? Don't you want to ring some brat's neck for doing this?” Vriska took a seat in the only open chair in the room, one right next to a curled-up Casey. “Or is there something else?”

The little girl on the chair began whining about how scared she was, and John pointed at her. “She's the reason I want to go home. She needs an animal to curl up with, a story read to her, and a nice long nap. She can only have one of those things here, though, but she won't do that without the other two...”

Standing in the doorway still, Tavros sighed. “I could run out and get the stuff for her, if you want. It would take probably an hour, but it's better than nothing, right?” In all honesty, he didn't want to go. He hated driving in the snow, and he really didn't want to have to go home to come back to go home again. “Hand me your keys, and I'll get going.” John reached into his pocket and extracted his key ring, from which he took their apartment key, and tossed it over to Tavros.

“We'll stay here until you get back, promise. Thanks for doing this, by the way.”

“You can't do it, so I will. It's the right thing to do.” He came into the room just to kiss Vriska goodbye, and then left, getting out to his car in record time, and starting the cold and snowy drive home as safely as he could. His goal was to get there and back in one piece, and he was going to assure his safety by being even more careful than usual.

It took getting to the apartment building, up the multiple flights of stairs, and opening the door to their place for him to realize that he had no idea which animal to get, or which book. A call to the group at the hospital was required, he knew. “Okay, I'm here. What am I supposed to get? She's got like fifty animals, and even more books lying around. Do I just grab whatever, or is there something she wants?”

“Her salamander. Get that. She won't sleep without it. As for the book, get whatever's nearest her bed.” Taking John's orders there to heart, Tavros went into Casey's room, located her salamander and her book, and grabbed both, which he told John. “Great. Thanks for doing that for us. We'll see you back here in a bit, okay?”

“Yeah, in a bit. The snow's still coming down, so it may take longer than you'd hope.” He went to hang up then, but there was a nagging at the back of his mind that forced him to ask one last question: “What's Vriska doing right now?”

John gave a laugh that was slightly concerning, but the worry was gone when he spoke. “Just playing her Pokémon game. She's fighting Red right now, and, as I'm sure you know, it snows up there in the remakes. It's funny to listen to. But she's fine, don't worry. If anything happens, which it won't, we'll call you and give you details.”

“Sounds great. I'll get there as soon as I can.” That was when he hung up, leaving their apartment with the door locked behind him, and he went back out to the car and was on his merry way. It had to be when he was halfway back that his phone started ringing, and he ignored it, because safe driving meant no talking on the phone.

The person who was trying to call him happened to be John, and he was in a slight panic when the phone wasn't answered, so he tried again. And again. “He's not answering,” he said after the sixth try. “But if he gets back, he isn't going to leave.”

“I know, I know...” Jade, who was now sitting up next to him, sighed. “Keep calling him. I'll keep pressing this button and hoping someone gets in here soon before she starts to scream.” She was, of course, talking about Vriska, who had gone from peacefully playing her game to sitting in the chair in complete silence, her bottom lip in her mouth and her feet curled up under her. “I can't believe this. Really can't. There is no way that she's...”

“Jade, we've got to believe her.” Tossing his phone aside, as his seventh try didn't work, John got off the bed and dropped down in front of Vriska. “Isn't that right? You told us the truth, didn't you? This isn't a joke?”

When Vriska opened her mouth, all that came out was a loud whine for a few moments, before she nodded and said, “No, I'm pranking you both. I'm just sitting here, pretending to be going into labor and having contractions and stuff. This is all a fucking ruse. I don't hurt at all.”

“I can see that you're lying, Vriska...but, uh, this isn't something that just happens like this. How long have you been hiding this?”

She shrugged, wincing as a wave of pain came on. “Since I woke up, I guess. It wasn't hurting too bad, but I knew what was going on and I figured, hey, no sense in ruining my day's plans when they involve walking and they'll probably make me walk around a bunch if I go over there now. And look, here I am at the hospital, right when I need to be. Isn't that perfect?”

“Wait, did you just say you've been dealing with this all day?” John looked up and back at Jade, who's mouth was hanging half-open at that revelation. “Do you not feel anything less than terrible pain or something? From what I've read and heard, this stuff is really painful...”

“It is, but I can tolerate a fuck lot more of pain than most people. That's what happens when you fall down a flight of stairs, destroy both of your knees, and become paralyzed for like a week. You learn to ignore the pain. And that's what I did here.” She screamed for a second, before throwing her head back and whimpering. “But now it's too much. Where's Tavros so I can ring his fucking neck for this?”

John reached for his phone and checked to see if he had been called back—but he hadn't. “Somewhere out on the road, okay? He'll be here as soon as he can be, and hopefully that will be very, very soon.” As he said that, two nurses, alerted by Jade's button pushing, came in, and immediately were directed to help with Vriska, to the point of getting her up and out of the room. The last words that John was able to say to her before she left were simple, that she wouldn't be alone for too much longer.

If he had known that “too much longer” would be as long as it was, he definitely would have chosen different words. This, of course, was because Tavros was still ignoring each and every one of the calls his phone was getting. At first, it was because he was driving. Then it was because of how many there were, he figured it was just John being impatient, and that if he answered, he'd be told to hurry up, not that anything was going on with his girlfriend.

He did eventually answer the phone, but not at one of John's calls. The call he chose to answer happened to be one from Dave, who he wasn't expecting to have call him at all. It just so happened that he was stopped at a light and when the call came, he had just settled in right behind the stop line at one of the longest lights in the area—he knew he had more than enough time to handle the call. “Hey, could you come get me? My car won't start, and it is too damn cold for me to be walking home from here.”

“Uh, I guess I could. I mean, you are kind of far away from where I am right now, but I'm sure John and Jade and Casey would understand if I'm a little late getting this stuff to them.” He looked at the toy and book in his passenger side seat. “I'll give them a quick call and tell them I'll be late, and I'll head right over there. Same place as usual, right?”

“You know it. Now come get me. It's fucking cold.” Dave laughed and hung up, leaving Tavros with the task of calling John, which he did the moment he pulled into the next parking lot he saw. He punched in the number and waited for the dark-haired man to answer his phone, but no such answer happened. Instead of trying again, he just left a simple message explaining that Dave needed some help, and that he'd be even later than he should be.

If John had realized three seconds sooner that his phone had been put on silent, he would have gotten that call when it was made. Alas, he didn't get it until minutes later, as he was sitting next to Vriska, who was in a state of anger and pain, and getting very upset at the fact that she was still alone. When he saw that he had the message, he put it on speaker, allowing both of them to hear it: “It'll be a bit longer than I thought it would be, and I'm sorry about that. Dave called, and he needs me to go get him, so I'll go do that, and I'll be over there as soon as I get him. I promise.”

“Are you kidding me?” Vriska said under her breath, glaring at the phone. “He's going to pick getting his friend over this? Really?”

“He doesn't know this is going on right now, okay? We'll get him over here as soon as we possibly can.” John smiled, before trying to call Tavros once more. Without fail, his call went unanswered, leaving the two of them sitting there hoping that he really would get there quickly.

Fate, however, wanted things to happen a little differently. It was a good forty-five minutes before Dave was acquired and in the car, meaning he was an hour out from where the hospital was, and on the ride back to where he belonged, disaster struck in the form of an accident, one taking place right in front of them. There was, naturally, no choice but to help the victims and make sure that everyone involved was okay, but this had a consequence. When the police arrived on scene, they chose to question the two who were simply helping.

Since Tavros had no idea what was waiting for him at the hospital, he didn't argue in the slightest with the demand. After all, he was just doing what was right, and he really did think that all he was doing was holding up a little girl's nap time. Once they were back in the car and back on the road, after a couple hours of dealing with the accident and being treated to a meal from one of the parties involved, Tavros' phone began ringing for what seemed like the millionth time that day.

Doing his duty as passenger, Dave answered it. “This is the phone of a driving douchebag, so I'm answering it,” he playfully said upon pressing it to his face. “What can I do for you?” As the person on the other end, naturally John, spoke, a small frown formed on Dave's lips, which was almost actually visible by the time the conversation was over, a lot of “sure” and “mmhmm”s on his part. “Dude, we need to go to your place. He said something about a bag? I don't even know what he was going on about, honestly. Lots of screaming and threats about you in the background. I think Vriska might be having a meltdown or something.”

“A bag? The only bag that I can think of that I would need, well, doesn't make sense in this situation, and that's because it's the bag with the baby stuff in it, and there's no way that...oh.” His grip on the steering wheel tightened. “Oh fuck. You said she's having a meltdown, and John mentions that...what am I missing by being here and not there?”

“I can tell you what you're missing.” Dave put the phone down back where he got it from as he spoke, giving it a dirty look from under his sunglasses. “You're missing being bitched at by a crazy lunatic of a woman.”

If it wasn't for the weather, Tavros would have slammed on the brakes and made Dave walk from there, but the snow was still coming down, and so he just kept the idea to himself. “She's not crazy. She's been through a lot, and I can't believe I'm out here on the roads doing all of this while she's there, without me, possibly having our son or daughter who I really hope is a son because I have a name for him and everything and, fuck, I am the worst person alive.”

“No, there are worse. Just keep driving and do what John said. That bag. Get that. Oh, and I don't know how you and her are going to raise this thing, when you both are so wrapped up in your video game worlds to care about the real one. Like, honestly? I bet she's playing her Pokémon game right now.”

The best thing for Tavros to do then was focus on driving and not what Dave had said. It was hard, but he accomplished it, and within two hours of that, he was finally returning to the hospital, nearly forgetting to grab the original items he was sent to retrieve as he went inside. Even though he knew there was something much bigger for him to be worrying with, he made sure to get the stuffed salamander and the book to Casey before he did anything else. When he saw the little girl, she smiled at him, taking the animal and hugging it, then turning to him and hugging him as well. “Thank you,” she said in a very quiet voice, “I like these.”

“I hope you like them. I went on a wild journey to get those for you.” That was all he said to her before he disappeared on a search for wherever they were keeping his girlfriend, because by that point he was feeling absolutely terrible for doing so many things for others, and leaving her completely alone in the process.

When he did find her, after actually finding John and being taken to her by him, she was doing like Dave had rudely suggested, and she was playing HeartGold, but unlike normal, she was completely silent in doing so. No random mutters, no outbursts, nothing. The only sound coming from her was her button mashing, until she noticed that he was there. Moving the game so it wasn't covering her face, he immediately noticed her tear-stained cheeks. “Hi there, Tavros. It's about damn time that you show up.”

“Things happened.” He pulled a chair from against the wall to right next to the bed where she was. “And I guess things happened here, too? Care to tell me why you're in here like this?”

“You'd already know this if you would have answered your phone, but the basic story is that you left, I played my game to keep my mind off all the pain I was in, it got to be too much, and then they brought me in here because I had been hiding the fact that I had been in labor for a while, which is not a very smart idea at all.” She sighed and closed her game to completely focus on him, giving him her hand, which he gently squeezed. “I wish you had been here, but I know, my fault for trying to be strong and hide things.”

The squeezing on her hand got a bit harder. “So, how did it go? Was it bad? Do you want to kill me for not being here?”

“Kill you? No, I'd much rather have you be alive, thanks. It was pretty bad, but that might be because of me being stubborn and not letting them give me that pain whatever. And it went as well as it could have, when I'm crying half because of how bad it hurts and half because you weren't here to witness it.” Vriska's eyes caught his, and she gave him a smile. “You've got to see her. She's adorable. Looks a lot like what you would if you were a tiny girl.”

“That's cute...wait.” He blinked a couple times before smiling as well. “You were right all along. It was a girl, just like you said. So what are you going to name her? Or did you name her already?”

“Was waiting for you, but I have the name picked out. And no, it's not Bitchlord or Bitchface. Those are terrible names. It's something a bit more fitting of the situation today.”

* * *

Unlike most girls her age, little Snow wasn't interested in dolls or animals. She would play with them, sure, but she didn't feel any attachment to them, which made her seem a bit weird. Her parents, however, were quite okay with that, choosing to introduce her to the things they liked while she was still young.

“Momma, I wanna watch 'tchlord fight more 'reeps!” she whined one night before bed, clinging to an old Game Boy as she said it. “But I dunno where the 'reeps are...”

“Okay, darling, I'll show you some fights. But not too many tonight, okay? If we do too many, then he'll be too strong and win everything too easily, and we don't want that.” Her mom grabbed the game from her small hands, sat down on the couch, and pulled the little girl up into her lap. “Okay, let's play Pokémon, shall we?”

Snow giggled and clapped her hands. “Yes, momma! Let's play!” As she would grow up, playing the game would become something she would do on her own, no longer relying on either of her parents to have to play for her, and the more she got into it, the more she connected with them. Instead of board games for family time, they'd play their respective Pokémon games, and have fun while doing it.

In her very first play-through of a copy of HeartGold, she reached the top of Mount Silver, only to find it snowing up there. “Wow, that's cool!” she said, showing her mom. “I didn't know there was snow in this game!”

“Where else do you think you got your name from, silly! What, did you think it snowed around her on the day you were born?” Giving a laugh at the girl, Vriska smiled at her and the game. “That would just be strange.” And sitting across from the two of them at the table when that exchange happened, only the largest of grins found its way onto Tavros's lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the end--of this story. The second part is in the works, another five chapter piece with a focus on John and Jade, but it's got the underlying tone of the Tavros and Vriska shenanigans in it. And yes, the little end thing is relevant. It'll come back up at the end of part two. (:


End file.
